The need for supporting and protecting electrical wires, cables, and pipes as they pass through a wall has long been recognized. Support for the wire is required to prevent the wire from engaging the opening in the wall, which could damage the wire. In addition, it is often desired to seal water and other debris outside of a passenger compartment of a vehicle or outside an electrical housing into which wires, cables, pipes, and the like must typically pass.
Several attempts have been made to produce a grommet for sealing the area of a wall through which a wire or bundle of wires passes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,513 discloses a grommet having a space into which a waterproof rubber material is injected, which hardens to seal the area where a bundle of wires passes through the grommet. Injecting a liquid sealant into the grommet is cumbersome and increases the expense associated with this grommet.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,897,533 discloses a grommet having an internal flange which resiliently engages a wire or tube to create a seal which prevents water and other debris from passing to the inside of a panel. Although this type of seal may be suitable for sealing a single wire that passes through a grommet, it is incapable of preventing water from seeping through passageways formed between multiple wires as they pass through the annular seal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,359 discloses a grommet made of a heat shrinkable material which is heated to shrink around the cable and create a seal. The requirement to apply heat to this type of grommet is cumbersome and creates obvious problems where applying heat is required within the confined areas of electrical housings, engine compartments, and the like.